Slowly, More Women Gain Seats On Boards of Directors

NY Times editors reported on a study by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) which found that “women held (only)16 percent of the board seats at S & P 1500 companies in 2014.” According to the GAO’s calculations, “even if every single future board seat vacancy” were to be filled with women, it would still take 10 years for women to be equally represented.

But progress has been made, enough so that earlier this year, a new exchange traded fund was established which specializes in companies with solid financial performance that also advance women in management and to their boards of directors.
The goal of State Street Global Advisors SPDR Gender Diversity Index E.T.F. is to achieve market-rate returns with an index of 125 to 150 stocks that have been culled from the Russell 1000 index and have scored high on a scale of gender metrics.